by Angel Black
They also talked about the human world. Rachel told him about the giant machines that flew in the air to carry people, some of them even larger than him. He began to wonder what it would be like to fly in the human world, where there was real wind and cooler air. He wondered what it would be like to live there with Rachel. He had found her in a city, yes, but he knew they had forests too. Long, beautiful stretches of just mountains and rivers and trees. How beautiful would it be, he thought, to fly over such things with Rachel? To settle down in a small clearing and build their lives together there completely away from his father and all those like him who disapproved of his life choices.
It was only when he felt Rachel become more drowsy that he finally decided to end their flight. They had been up in the air for hours for now, and he didn’t want her lose her grip and fall. She hadn’t been stressed or worried with their trip at all, but instead relaxed more into him, trusting him to keep her safe, even at such high altitude. Gently banking, he began his descent to their backyard. Rachel once more took her time climbing off his back and wing, and once she was safely off he shifted back to his human form. As soon as he was a man again, Rachel rushed into his arms, hugging him and covering his muscular chest with kisses.
“That was so incredible!” She said aloud. “Thank you so much for sharing that with me!”
“I’m glad you liked it,” he chuckled. With the crook of his finger he lifted her chin up so that he could look into her eyes. They were bright and wide with excitement from the flight. A wide, genuine smile was spread across her flushed face and her wild, crazy curls were a beautiful tangled mess. She looked beautiful and feral. For a moment, he could see the dragon’s blood in her. It called to him, connected to his own. Human body or not, his woman had the spirit of the dragon in her.
Chapter 23: I accept those terms
Valonis
Four Months Later
A bead of sweat rolled down Valonis’ left temple as he held Rachel’s hand with both of his hands. His grip on her was tight, but not nearly as tight as her grip on him. He thought for sure that she was going to squeeze them right off, and then suddenly, she could breathe again, and she loosened her grip on his digits.
“That was ten minutes,” he told her, double checking his watch. “They’re getting closer together.”
“I can feel that,” Rachel shot back sarcastically. Immediately she gave him an apologetic look, and he quickly told her not to worry about it.
“I think it’s time to head to the palace,” he suggested. “By the time we get there the contractions could be much closer together. I don’t want to take any chance of you having to deliver without the help of one of our priestesses.”
Exhausted, Rachel simply nodded her head. Valonis wanted to take her back to the palace about as much as Rachel didn’t want to go to the palace. But it had to be done. They both wanted the baby to be delivered as safely as possible, and the priestesses were not allowed to leave royal grounds.
Outside a carriage waited for them. Valonis had paid the driver to stand by and wait for them the moment Rachel had her first contraction. He wanted to be as prepared as possible for everything he could control which was, to his utter annoyance, everything but his father and his council.
“That’s it my love,” he coaxed her as they made their way towards the palace. “Breathe for me.” Rachel suddenly gasped and cringed as another contraction hit her.
“Eight minutes,” he told her, and then shouted at the driver. “Faster, man! Faster!”
The driver got them to a side entrance door of the palace within the next ten minutes. Standing outside the entrance was, to Rachel’s surprise, Duke.
“What’s happening?” She asked.
“Sabotage my lady.” Duke jested, helping her out of the carriage.
“He’s going to help us,” Valonis explained. “Sneak in, have the baby, sneak out. That’s the plan.”
Rachel’s contractions had started coming only four minutes apart by the time Duke and Valonis got her safely to Valonis’ old chambers where the high priestess was waiting for them. To their surprise however, the bed had been moved, and the entrance to the portal pathway was wide open.
“What is this?” Valonis asked, worry flooding him. “What’s going on?”
Instead of answering, the priestess motioned towards the entrance, and to everyone’s surprise, Vilhelm came up the stairs.
“You!” Valonis growled, rage flooding through him. “If you lay a finger on her I swear to all that is holy in this kingdom I will end you!” He roared.
“Easy son,” the Earl replied, holding his hands up in the air in surrender. “I’m not here to hurt anyone.”
Valonis looked savagely at his father, not sure at all how to feel. He could feel the pain rippling through Rachel as she neared birth. He knew she would need to deliver, and soon. And he wanted a priestess there. They were trained in midwifery, albeit their skills had gone unused for a long time.
Scared and frustrated for his wife and the inability to trust his own father, Valonis threw back his head and roared.
“If you hurt her,” he threatened, his voice promising death, “I will kill you slowly and make sure everyone knows that I was your murderer.”
Vilhelm’s eyes grew wide and his face went pale, but he did not back down.
“I know how this seems,” he explained, taking a step towards them. “And I’m not an apologizing man. But when you-when Rachel came to dinner- the way she stood up. It moved me.”
In Valonis’ arms Rachel screamed as her knees buckled out from under her. Valonis’ strong arms were all that were keeping her from falling to the ground, but even he was wavering.
“Priestess,” the Earl commanded, “Administer her the medicine at once!”
Valonis began to shake his head, but his father began to plead with him. “It is only to take the pain away, nothing more. Please, son. I watched one daughter in-law and grandchild die. Don’t make me watch it all over again.”
Memories of his brother and his wife came back in forceful flashes. He didn’t want to admit it, but his father was right. For the moment, he had to believe that he didn’t want to cause Rachel or the baby any harm.
“Fine,” he said at last, carrying Rachel over to the bed. “But she’s not going to make it to the portal chamber.”
The priestess rushed to Rachel’s side the moment Valonis put her on the bed. She pushed him away as her hands immediately went to her belly to check for any signs of danger. Valonis watched anxiously as she checked her blood pressure, heart rate, and pupils.
“Mommy and baby are doing fine,” she said at last, a smile on her face.
Valonis felt tears well up in his eyes as he felt a wave of relief wash over him.
“However,” the priestess went on, looking pointedly at Valonis. “This is her first pregnancy, and your child is large. Allow me to administer some pain relief herbs. It will help her relax so she can push the baby through with as little tearing as possible.”
“Do it,” Rachel gasped, her hands gripping the sheets of the bed. “I don’t give a damn what any of these men say just give me the damned drugs!”
Valonis smiled lovingly at his wife, thankful that she spoke. She had been silent for so long, he wasn’t sure how she was feeling. He was beyond happy to hear her spunky quip, and he couldn’t help but let out a stressed bark of laughter at the response.
“You heard the woman,” he consented, going to Rachel’s left shoulder so she could hold his hand. “Give her the damned drugs!”
The priestess moved with a skilled agility, despite the distance in years that she had last assisted a birth. Within moments, she had the medicine administered to Rachel as well as laid her in a better position for the birth.
“There you are,” she said a few moments later, making the final adjustments. “Is that better?”
Valonis waited anxiously for her answer. If she said no he would search the entire realm for whatever it took to mak
e her pain go away. To his relief, he didn’t have to leave her side at all.
“Much better,” she sighed, a smile spreading across her tired face. “Thank you so much.”
Valonis paced nervously outside of his old chamber doors, waiting impatiently for the high priestesses to allow him in. Barely five minutes after Rachel received her medicine did she give birth to a beautiful baby boy. He had Valonis’ golden dragon eyes, and Rachel’s chocolate curls. Though it was possible that things might change in a few days, the baby’s pupils were slit, much like the dragon form. Aside from that, he very much looked like a normal, healthy human baby with ten fingers, ten toes, and one beautiful set of healthy lungs, which he began to use immediately after exiting the womb.
Valonis had prepared for the worst, but in doing so he had not prepared for the best. When the priestess laid the baby in his arms, he felt an overwhelming amount of pride, love, and happiness burst through the entirety of his veins. From the bed, Rachel had reached a tired hand up to rest on his back.
“What shall we name him my love?” She had asked. He immediately turned to her and sat down on the bed.
“Are you sure you’re feeling all right, Rachel?” He had asked, wanting to make sure. “There’s no pain? Dizziness? Nausea?”
Rachel had laughed at him and assured him everything was fine, aside from the post-birth pains which were to be expected.
“Come,” she had insisted, nudging him playfully. “Do you really not want to name your son so bad that you are trying to distract me?”
Valonis remembered the look on her face when he gave her his response. It was an image he would keep with him forever. On days when it felt like worlds were falling apart and hope was lost eternally, he would remember the look of love and appreciation on Rachel’s face.
“Oh, I have already named him,” he had said, matter- of- factly. Rachel had laughed at him and had pretended to be hurt for not being included.
“I’m sorry my dear wife, but I just couldn’t allow you to change my mind,” he jested. Then, with sincerity he looked down at her and smiled. “Meet your son, Walter Kirk Drekaris, future Earl of the Dragon Kingdoms.”
If he ever had any doubts about Rachel loving him, they had vanished in that moment. The look she gave him when he announced their child’s name was one of pure love and appreciation. Unfortunately, the moment had been short-lived, as twelve other priestesses began to glide into the room for the birthing ceremony. No men were allowed in the room for the hour and a half blessing ceremony, and despite his best efforts to stay, Valonis found himself pacing outside in the hallway with Duke and his father.
“Easy there my lord,” Duke jested. “You’ll wear a trench into the floor.”
Realizing he was right, he stopped, and gave Duke an appreciative smile. “You’re right old friend,” he replied.
Duke squared his shoulders, looking pleased with himself. “Too right I am, my lord,” he said. “And since I am right I think I’ll go rustle us up some food. In the meantime, perhaps you two should talk about some things.”
Before Valonis could make a joke about overstepping boundaries, Duke was halfway down the hall, leaving Valonis alone with his father. They stood in awkward silence for several moments before Vilhelm finally began to speak.
“I wasn’t always this way you know,” Vilhelm began. His eyes stayed on the ground, even though Valonis turned to stare at him straight on.
“At one point, I didn’t care one way or another about humans. They had their perks. Their intelligence and knack for technology was always great for us.” He paused, smiling at a memory. “There was even one time, long before you and your brother were born, that your mother had desired to adopt a human child. A little girl.”
Valonis felt his eyes widen as his jaw practically dropped to the floor. “Excuse me?” He asked. “Could you repeat that?”
Vilhelm chuckled, running a hand through his hair. “Shocking I know. Your mother, she loved visiting the human world portals. She would take her handmaidens with her and she would clean them, anoint them with blessing oil, all of that. On one particular day, and she never quite told me how, a little girl had wandered through while they were there. She was a dark, tiny thing, with ebony hair and eyes. Her hair stood up in odd angles, and her little belly was distended from hunger. She barely had a scrap of clothing on, so your mother, she wrapped the young one up in her cloak and brought her to me. We fed her, bathed her. Your mother named her Obsidia, for her dark eyes.”
“What happened to her?” Valonis asked, shocked at the story that he was hearing.
A sad smile spread across his father’s face.
“She died, the lovely little thing. In our excitement, we had forgotten about human illnesses. Dragons aren’t affected by them, so our priestesses don’t know how to check for them. Due to her lack of care she had contracted a virus, and wasted away in front of our eyes. There was nothing we could do. Your mother, desperate to save her, even ventured into the human world and took her to a hospital. The virus had spread so fast there was nothing they could do. So, your mother brought her home, made her as comfortable as possible, and made sure that the time she had left was never spent alone or unhappy.”
Valonis watched as his father struggled to maintain control of his emotions. It was a sight he had never seen before, not at his even at his brother’s funeral. In all times of sadness, his father had remained stoic, impassive.
“We loved her,” he said after a long stretch of silence. “Not just your mother. I loved her too. She was around four when she had been found, and we got to keep her for six months--- a blink of an eye for our lifespan.” His tone changed, and he looked directly into Valonis’ eyes.
“Her death changed us, Valonis. We learned in a very painful way that to love a human only means to wait for heartbreak. If you’re lucky, you can have them for eighty or so years, but what is that for us? Warriors aren’t even allowed to begin training until they’re at least one hundred!”
He reached out for Valonis’ arm, and Valonis didn’t shake it away. “You have no idea the amount of heartbreak you will feel when you lose her---when you lose both of them,” he whispered. “It will turn you into a monster.”
He let go, and let out a heavy sigh. “Or maybe not. Maybe you’re a stronger dragon than I will even be. You are the more rational one. The moment I saw you had a human I felt that pain of Obsidia’s death quicker and harder than I ever imagined and I immediately despised Rachel, even after you told me that you were the one that decided to bring her to our world. But I don’t want to be that way anymore. I’m old, son, and lonely. I know we’ve been fighting for decades, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t miss you. You’re the only family I had left for a long time. Now, I have a new daughter-in-law, and a new grandson. I want to be a part of your lives. I want to prove to you and Rachel that I’m not this evil old dragon that I’ve made myself to be.”
Valonis was silent for a long time, processing the new and startling information he had just been given. Of all excuses that he had expected to hear, this was nowhere close to any of them.
“You have my forgiveness,” he said at last, “But I cannot give you Rachel’s. You will have to earn that yourself. Also, I will not allow you both to be in the same room until you can prove to me that you mean what you say. I will not make this easy for you.”
The older dragon smiled, and offered his arm to Valonis in the traditional warrior handshake. “I accept those terms.”
Chapter 24: Tears for My Father and My World
Rachel
Sleep was heavy in Rachel’s eyes, but the moment she heard baby Walter cry she was up and pulling him into her arms.
“There there, little one,” she spoke soothingly, holding him to her breast. “It’s all right. Mommy’s got you.”
Walter latched to her breast quickly, and Rachel once more settled back into the pillows. Beside her, Valonis murmured about getting up, but the dragon man didn’t even open his ey
es. Rachel couldn’t help but giggle a little as she stared down at him.
“Your father and I have quite the story you know,” she whispered, cradling Walter closer. “It’s a little on the odd side. Okay, maybe a lot on the odd side. But he loves us so much, and wants nothing but the best for you and me. So don’t you worry about anything. We promise to keep you happy and safe, no matter what.”
Softly, she began to hum the lullaby her father had made for her when she was young. She couldn’t quite remember the words, but she knew the melody by heart. A lump of tears swelled in her throat as her mind flooded with precious memories of her father.
“I wish you could have met your grandfather,” she sighed, wiping away tears. “He would have loved you so much.”
She wanted more than anything to be able to tell her son that he still had another grandfather ready to love him, but she just wasn’t sure. He had come the night before to explain his reasons, and though it was a heart wrenching story, she couldn’t quite find forgiveness in her just yet. It was going to take a lot of time and proof to trust the Earl, but he promised her that he would earn it, even if it took a lifetime.
Wanting to stretch her legs, Rachel silently slipped from her bed and began to pace slowly back and forth on the marble floor. Walter had fallen back asleep, content with a full tummy, but now she was wide awake. She thought of the past. Of how it was gone, and how nothing would change it. It was a cruel few weeks for her, but that was it.
Valonis had showed her love. Real once in a lifetime love, and he gave her a son that she cherished more and more every day. He shared with her his dragon form, and his realm. He gave her experiences in the market and with his people, and she had learned so much since she had been taken. There were many things to be happy for.